Word: watchdogging
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...more likely because of the satisfaction that can come from exposing the press as an insidious conspiracy. These groups now abound on the left and the right, groups with such names as Morality in Media and Facts and Logic About the Middle East (FLAME). There are also aquatic watchdog publications such as Greenpeace Pundit Watch and watchdog books such as Unreliable [TMFONT 1 d #666666 d {Sources: A Guide to Detecting Bias in the News Media. One outfit even publishes an annual guide that rates journalists on a four-star basis, as if they were restaurants or portable vacuum cleaners...
There are other signs of a confusion in some quarters between patriotism and conformity. During the gulf war, peace vigils were occasionally disrupted by frat-house zealots. According to a study done by a media watchdog group, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, television executives virtually excised antiwar voices from the air. Bumper stickers advised good citizens to SAVE A FLAG, BURN A PROTESTER. And the nastiness didn't end with the hostilities overseas. One of the official entertainers for the June victory parade in Washington was radio talk-show personality Blake Clark, whose theme is, "If you aren't homeless...
...social services, proved to be a mixed blessing. Technocrats may admire systems like Bangkok's, which by 2006 will have stored vital data on 65 million Thais in a single, integrated computer network. But civil libertarians are appalled. Simon Davies, an Australian expert on such technology for the watchdog group Privacy International, says Bangkok's prizewinning program is, potentially, "one of the most repressive surveillance systems the world has ever seen...
...many former federal officeholders actually make more for not working than they ever did on the job. Some even outearn incumbents in the offices they once held. "Congressional pensions are typically two to three times more generous than those in the private sector," says David Keating, who heads a watchdog group called the National Taxpayers Union. Much the same could be said of presidential pensions. This year, for instance, former President Gerald Ford will receive $20,000 more in his golf-oriented retirement than George Bush will draw as leader of the free world. Some examples of lavish retirement benefits...
INTERVIEW Ethics watchdog Barbara Jordan keeps tabs on Texas...